...but know Mehringer will call it:

The quick throw to the slot receiver who is running parallel behind the line of scrimmage looking backwards at the QB the whole time waiting to catch the ball.

That cost us 3 yards after the Nebraska Punter kneel-down.

What idiot thinks it's a great idea to blind fold their WR behind the line of scrimmage with the ball like that. It probably takes half a second to turn your head and torso round 270 degrees and another half a second to process where the defense is at and another quarter second to begin the process of changing your momentum direction, all the while the defenders have been staring you down moving at 7+ yards per second to intercept you.

I realize there are blockers, but there is so much space they are blind blocking for, and often a nickel or OLB is unblocked moving like a heat sealing missile.

It's just so stupid, but I'm sure the mad scientist thinks he doing a great job getting the ball to his best players in space, ugh!

I've got a name for it now.. "The sitting Duck" play.

Edited Monday at 03:33 AM3 days by Solar

I can't than any of the bubble screens or tunnel screens. Everybody seems to know when it's coming, and the blocking is always atrocious.

They all look at what Ohio state does with Jeremiah Smith. That's the kind of screen I can get behind.

Exactly! Great post, Solar. Watch how Indiana runs their short passing game. The ball is out in front on a quick slant or screen. The receiver is never catching the ball with their back to the defense. They get tons of YAC.

Then look at Oregon. They ask their receivers to turn 180 and catch the ball behind the line of scrimmage and then turn and make a play, all while the entire defense is running downhill towards them. They get little to no YAC in most cases.

Oregon has amazing skill position talent, but you have to put them into a situation to succeed. Oregon consistently doesn’t do that in the short passing game. They ignore the middle of the field and the ball is never out in front.

Edited Tuesday at 03:59 PM1 day by GeotechDuck

Those plays drive me absolutely crazy now because most of the time they feel like nothing more than throwing away a down. The receiver catches the ball behind the line, has to gather himself and turn upfield, and by then the defense is already closing in.

The crazy part is that those same kinds of plays were incredibly effective under Chip Kelly. The difference was that Oregon blocked the hell out of them, and Chip had a great feel for when to call them. He could read what the defense was giving him and knew when the numbers and spacing were there to make it work.

That is what seems to be missing now. The concept itself is not necessarily the problem. It is the blocking, the timing, and knowing when the defense is actually vulnerable to it. Without those things, it is exactly what you said, a receiver getting the ball behind the line with nowhere to go.

I have 1 word for this--its all in the proper- Blocking-

This play has annoyed me for years. The receivers are almost never blocking correctly, the receiver of the ball is always turned sideways or backwards and not going forward and every team ALWAYS has people destroying it. It seems pointless.

These plays always worked under Kelly because he valued receivers that could block. Go back and watch some of those great Le Michael James highlights and you'll usually see TJ Ward 15 yards down field absolutely blowing up the corner the entire time. The play we hate now was close to one of our unstoppable plays in the Natty against Auburn but with blocking like that in front of it. Big difference.

4 hours ago, The Kamikaze Kid said:

These plays always worked under Kelly because he valued receivers that could block. Go back and watch some of those great Le Michael James highlights and you'll usually see TJ Ward 15 yards down field absolutely blowing up the corner the entire time. The play we hate now was close to one of our unstoppable plays in the Natty against Auburn but with blocking like that in front of it. Big difference.

They worked because defenses were still learning how to defend the spread and the fastest players were on offense not defense. Today you can have the numbers match or advantage at the snap, but by the time the ball get's to the WR it's a different story.

I always go back to the fact that in theory the triple option always has a numbers advantage but nobody runs it anymore because it can still be beat consistently with modern defenses.

In addition to Chip’s demand for good blocking, spread offense and speed, what also made his bubble and tunnel screens work was opposing defenses were not conditioned for his uptempo offense.

When you have small shifty receivers, this is a good way to get them the ball out in space. When you have 4/5-star receivers with size and speed and you know your other WRs are going to block the wrong guy, it’s almost insulting. It shows no trust in your WRs’ ability to get open or your QB’s ability to throw downfield without putting the ball in danger. I watched multiple screens last week with 3 WRs on the same side with the blockers both going for the DB covering the receiver while the DBs covering the blockers ran free to make the TFL.